Canada and the US agreed to split the profit from a new bridge between Ontario and Michigan for 15 years — with no provision to cover Canada’s debt-service costs on the project, according to a copy of the pact seen by Bloomberg News. The agreement in principle covering the Gordie Howe International Bridge appears to contradict earlier public remarks from...
It's our first summer of 26 special Good Talk and there's lots to talk about. This week it's wildfires and the smoke they cause, upsetting the Canada/U.S. relationship. Not to mention the renegotiated Gordie Howe Bridge deal. For Pierre Poilievre its whether his leadership can survive much longer with internal fights breaking out all the time. Chantal Hebert and Bruce...
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is losing two cabinet ministers, as one resigned Friday amid criticism for expensing hotel stays in Toronto despite living in the city and a second announced his retirement. Stan Cho, who represents the north Toronto riding of Willowdale, resigned his post as minister of tourism, culture and gaming after coming under fire for expensing $16,000 in...
Saab says it will work with Canadian company CAE on a domestic training, flight simulation and support program if Ottawa decides to buy its Gripen jets. In a media statement, the companies say the deal would mean critical operational and mission systems information would stay in Canada under Canadian control. The Swedish jet maker has been trying to convince the...
An American diplomat raised several questions about the Gordie Howe bridge in a phone call shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump's February comments on the cross-border project ignited a political frenzy, newly released records reveal. Hundreds of pages of emails, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, also provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how Canadian officials...
A new Abacus Data survey finds broad public support for the federal government’s plan to purchase up to 12 new submarines for the Canadian navy, although Canadians are somewhat more divided when asked whether the program represents good value for public money. After being told the purchase could cost at least $24 billion and represent the largest military procurement in...
The Calgary Stampede political circuit was focused on the two Ps: pancakes and pipelines. Plenty of the former were flipped while plans were laid for the latter. New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds majority support both for the long awaited proposal for a new pipeline from Alberta to B.C. (63%) and the less heralded announcement of a...
The Conservative activist Ben Woodfinden was in despair. “I’m more depressed about the state of conservative politics in Canada right now than I think I’ve ever been,” he lamented in a widely read post online. “I look at all sorts of conservative camps and factions right now and I see intellectual poverty everywhere.” The comment was occasioned, in particular, by...
This week, the world marks International Justice Day and the 28th anniversary of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court. All these years later, it remains among the most consequential efforts ever made to hold war criminals accountable. Now Washington has announced its intention to “dismantle the ICC brick by brick, if necessary.”
Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser has ordered a new trial for a Quebec man convicted of four murders in the 1990s. Fraser says he found reasonable grounds to believe there may have been a miscarriage of justice in the case of Daniel Jolivet. Jolivet was convicted in 1994 of two counts of first-d
As part of a series of changes to the Senate’s ethics code and guidelines that came weeks before Prime Minister Mark Carney appointed a longtime Liberal insider and a Conservative MP to the Upper Chamber, Senators are now permitted to directly partake in political fundraising, among other changes. “This is in line exactly with the fact that there’s now going...
It all started about fifty years ago, in the backyard of my parents’ house in La Tuque, a small town roughly 130 kilometres north of Shawinigan. Our home sat on the edge of town, and just behind it was a gorgeous forest — my playground, my refuge, my world. Then one day, a work crew arrived and began cutting it...
Can we just try to empathize with poor Tourism Minister Stan Cho, who is currently enjoying his five-month summer break from the provincial legislature, while earning $232,340 annually thanks to a pay bump legislators gave themselves last year? He had to spend 30 whole days at Queen’s Park during the spring session, and 28 days during the fall session, which...
Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney appointed four people to the Senate, including his principal secretary and a sitting Conservative MP, while announcing his government will be making changes to the Senate appointment process. The move instantly drew criticism as the two appointments represented a marked shift from the way former prime minister Justin Trudeau appointed senators, strongly indicating that...
A global coalition of middle powers, led by Canada, is little more than “hubbub,” says a senior Trump administration official. The United States, he says, has never been more necessary or relevant. “We are not concerned,” wrote Under Secretary of Defense Eldridge Colby on social media this week, that a middle-power alliance capable of rivalling America “is a serious possibility.”...
For many years, Elbridge Colby has been one of the loudest voices in Washington calling for America’s NATO allies to pay their “fair share” on defence, in order to allow the United States to pivot toward the growing challenge of China.
Everybody knows Pierre Poilievre has a favourite adviser, whose counsel and wisdom he values above all. That adviser’s name: Pierre Poilievre. Where once it was the Conservatives’ greatest asset, however, Poilievre’s love affair with Poilievre has become a liability according to some Tories, and morale within the party has sagged to new depths.
If you’re Pierre Poilievre, you must be wondering, on some level, where everyone has been. Why are so many Tories suddenly complaining about the same personality you’ve had all along, and which they seemed to find so beguiling — or at least useful — when its most caustic bits were mobilized and sent into battle against Justin Trudeau’s prime ministership...
If the first rule of ransoms is that you don’t pay them, what to make of Mark Carney’s payoff to Donald Trump to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge? Make no mistake: Canada paid what amounts to a bribe. The Liberal government can dress it up as a “series of co-operative measures” regarding the governance of the new border crossing...
Raise a glass to Doug Ford, and most of his fellow premiers, for continuing to keep American liquor off our shelves. Because if there was somehow any doubt that we need to hold on to any sliver of leverage against Donald Trump, as trade negotiations heat up, it was erased by the way his hostage-taking of the Gordie Howe bridge...
As we surveyed the sickly yellow sky in Toronto on Wednesday, coloured by out-of-control wildfires up north, we thought back to the burning season of last year. In August, 2025, wildfire did to the village of Kingston, N.L., what two centuries of wars, economic depression and storms could not: wiped much of it off the map. Facilitated by drought (itself...
Carney left cleaning up the economic mess from our former PM
There are, it is sometimes said, only six people in Canada who understand the equalization formula, and five of them are dead. This is not entirely a joke. Equalization – the system of federal transfers to provinces whose “fiscal capacity” is judged to be below the national average – has become so overloaded with political fixes over the years, in...
Conservative MP Dean Allison called a news conference last week to give the media an update on his inquiry into the COVID-19 vaccine. If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking: There’s an inquiry into the COVID-19 vaccine? Why? Mr. Allison was accompanied by a couple of supporters: The husband-and-wife team of Shawn and Theresa Buckley, who run the Covid Testimony...
The 114th Calgary Stampede has come and gone, along with its performative, clichéd pancake-flipping political festival. But this year, one visitor mattered: Prime Minister Mark Carney – or rather, how Albertans would receive him. A lot is riding on the prime minister’s rapprochement with Albertans, and the vast majority of Canadians are hopeful that progress is being made and that...
As sure as summer is upon us, so are the regular tribulations of the federal Conservative Party in opposition. When the federal Conservatives sit in opposition and trail the Liberals in the polls, chances are whoever the leader is not living their best life. Step forward, Pierre Poilievre, it is your turn for a pummelling. Unfortunately for Poilievre, he tends...
The latest agreement between our government and the Trump administration to allow the opening of the Gordie Howe bridge that links Windsor and Detroit is just the latest in a long saga. After much delay and dithering, the bridge was scheduled to be open for business on June 15, 2026, after a planned ribbon cutting on June 12. The plan...
One observer said on CUSMA, Canada has to propose something that allows Trump to take the credit ‘without doing something that’s bad’
“Nice bridge you got there,” the thugs said. “It’d be a shame if something happened to it.” That’s not a verbatim transcript of what U.S. President Donald Trump’s operatives told Prime Minister Mark Carney about the Gordie Howe International Bridge, but it might as well have been. The U.S. President just shook down this country, refusing to allow the opening...
The Gordie Howe International Bridge should have been the easiest file in Canada-U.S. relations. Canada paid roughly $6.4 billion to build the bridge. Michigan received a new international crossing, customs facilities and a direct Interstate 75 connection without paying the construction bill. American workers, contractors and steel producers benefited. Automakers gained a badly needed alternative to the aging Ambassador Bridge...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s charm—and that, he has in abundance—may be wearing thin with some Canadians. His recent enthusiastic endorsement of another oil pipeline, intended eventually to carry another 100 million barrels a day of Alberta oil to foreign buyers, will surprise only those who have not been paying close attention. Carney has shredded most of Justin Trudeau’s green policies...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has a plan to “modernize” the Senate. If this sounds familiar, it’s likely because his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, said the same thing 11 years ago. Trudeau’s reform measures sought to eliminate partisanship from Senate appointments—or at least to create this appearance—Carney is bringing back partisan appointments. While proponents of democracy and political equality are likely not...
Sandwiched between 25 other news releases last week — from the prime minister’s NATO trip, to his lunch with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the man the CIA believes ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — Mark Carney moved to drown out the opposition voices he’s encountered in the Senate. In a statement Tuesday, Carney announced...
“O Canada” was played in Saudi Arabia this week for the first time in 26 years. That quarter-century silence tells the real story behind Mark Carney’s visit to Jeddah. The last Canadian prime minister to visit Saudi Arabia was Jean Chrétien, in 2000, during a 12-day Middle East tour driven by a very different ambition: to reinforce Canada’s role as...
As the federal government faces questions over the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to publicize details of the deal between Canada and the United States to open the delayed project. In a letter addressed to Carney on Friday, Poilievre is accusing the prime minister of “contradictory statements...
Perhaps the most surprising part of the announcement of the joint Operation Hard Ball last week was how much the RCMP's description of the actors involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist differed from what it said only a short while ago. "I firmly state that nothing has come out today to link the Indian government" to the...
Alberta's NDP leader says he'll seek a Calgary seat in the next general vote instead of running for re-election in Edmonton. Naheed Nenshi, who was mayor of Calgary for 11 years before switching to provincial politics, announced his decision Thursday in an online letter to his constituents in Edmonton-Strathcona. He says in the letter that he's "thrilled every day" to...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says a byelection in Calgary won't be called until Albertans have more time for politics. "In the middle of summer people probably aren't paying that much attention to politics," Smith told reporters Thursday in Edmonton. "We probably want to call it closer to when people are returning to normal, but you'll see an announcement in the...
Some U.S. lawmakers pressed Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to do something about wildfires that are sending smoke south of the border. Dozens of fires burning in northern Ontario have forced people from their communities and destroyed homes in Namaygoosisagagun First Nation north of Thunder Bay. Smoke from those fires has blanketed much of Southern Ontario and large swaths...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is doubling down on Canada’s deal with the United States to open the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge and insists toll revenue will not be shared “until all the debt is repaid.” “It’s not splitting the tolls of the bridge. It is an agreement for 15 years to split net revenues,” Carney said when speaking to...
More than 850 active wildfires are burning across Canada, including in parts of Northern Ontario, where flames are tearing through structures, forcing residents to flee and sending smoke across the province. According to latest data from the province, there are 180 active wildland fires — 136 in Ontario’s northwest region, with 63 classified as out of control, and 44 in...
Canada’s minister of energy and natural resources told a room of chiefs on Thursday that in his mind “there is no good way to build major projects without First Nations partnership and leadership.” Amid tension over Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promise to meaningfully consult Indigenous communities, while also angling to expedite approvals for new major energy and infrastructure projects in...
The U.S. Treasury last year swelled with revenue from President Donald Trump's double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. But the money dried up after the Supreme Court struck down the biggest and boldest of Trump's tariffs in February. The question now is: Can the president's trade team make good on its promise to replace the lost...
The federal government intends to spend nearly $2 billion over the next four years on made-in Canada armoured vehicles, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday. The planned addition of 190 armoured combat support vehicles will bring the Canadian Armed Forces' total fleet up to 550 vehicles, he said. The new vehicles will be used in training exercises at military bases...
U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer says he’s “given lots of proposals to the Canadians.” Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing growing criticism at home over stalled U.S.-Canada trade talks, and fresh comments from the Trump administration suggest his concessions have done little to move Washington. There hasn’t been “a lot” of movement in bilateral negotiations with Canada, U.S. Trade Representative...
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is the unabashed defender of the president in a country where tariffs and 51st-state talk are wildly unpopular
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been thinking big — very big — as plans advance to build a new West Coast oil pipeline. To her, growing oil production in her province to fill that million-barrel pipe isn’t a sufficient ambition. She’s staked a target to double Alberta oil production to eight million barrels a day in as little as a...
The Carney government has sent a senior official from Canada’s embassy in Washington, to a Trump administration summit trying to rally allies behind a new U.S. campaign targeting left-wing groups it claims are a top terrorism threat. Canada is one of more than 60 countries attending the high-level counterterrorism meeting, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office confirmed Thursday, though it’s...
When Prime Minister Mark Carney stood alongside Alberta’s premier earlier this month to herald a plan for a new oil export pipeline, the news came with a massive taxpayer-funded caveat. In the absence of a private firm to build the proposed oil corridor, the pair confirmed, the federally owned Trans Mountain Corp. would lead the roughly $40-billion project.
The United States took one step closer to abandoning the practice of changing the clocks every spring and fall, raising the question: how would such a move down south impact Canada? This week, the U.S. Congress voted in favour of a bill that would put an end to twice-yearly time change and stay on daylight saving time year-round. The bill...
A handful of federal ministers are expected to address hundreds of First Nations chiefs as they gather in Ottawa today. They'll be speaking in front of the Assembly of First Nations' annual general meeting about public safety, the economy and natural resources development and social services for communities. The Assembly of First Nations is a national advocacy body that takes...
An internal government audit of Canadian diplomatic missions in the U.S. completed late last year found staff faced safety risks and problems with accessing health care -- more than a year after a union flagged those same issues. "U.S. cities present security risks related to street crime, protests, the widespread presence of firearms, and broader social crises such as substance...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has no intention of reviving a Liberal caucus in the Senate but is prepared to beef up Conservative ranks in the upper chamber, said the government’s representative in the Senate, Pierre Moreau. In an interview with National Post, Moreau said that he has been in discussions with Carney’s office for some time about the new Senate...
A judge has extended a special court order freezing the assets of a prominent Alberta separatist as part of an ongoing trust fund dispute with a First Nation. Last week, Justice Michael Marion in Calgary granted a temporary injunction freezing up to $8.5 million in assets held by Jeffrey Rath. It's part of an ongoing legal battle between Rath and...
As President Donald Trump's administration continues to erode allies' trust, a new poll says the Canadians surveyed who say they hold a favourable view of China now outnumber those who say the same of the United States. Recent polling by the Pew Research Center found Trump receiving mostly negative ratings from countries around the world. Today, the agency released new...
The US and Canada are presenting different accounts of a profit-sharing deal President Donald Trump agreed to that permits a new bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario to open later this month. The White House and the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney last Friday announced an agreement to open the Gordie Howe International Bridge after the US delayed it. Canada...
The federal government will not accept any new applications this year from people who want to sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada as permanent residents under a program meant to promote family reunification. The Immigration Department said the change is part of an effort to responsibly manage the system and reduce wait times. In a statement posted...
What was supposed to be the start of Premier Tim Houston's speaking tour to chambers of commerce across Nova Scotia ended up with him requiring a police escort. Houston was in Wolfville, N.S., on Wednesday where he was addressing the Annapolis Valley Chamber of Commerce at Acadia University about his vision for the province's economy. When Houston first arrived at...
CHARLOTTETOWN -- The leader of Prince Edward Island's Liberals has stepped down after another unsuccessful bid to win a seat in the legislature.
A week after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his first picks for the Red Chamber, the federal government has named almost a dozen people to its Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments. In 2016, the previous Liberal government created the independent advisory board to provide non-binding recommendations on Senate appointments to the prime minister. Under the Carney government, the board...
U.K., Japan and Italy are partners in multibillion-dollar program. Defence Minister David McGuinty is expected to announce in the United Kingdom next week that Canada will play a role in an international program to build the next generation of stealth fighter jets, CBC News has learned. Canada has reached a deal to join the Global Combat Air Program as an...
First Nations chiefs say they'll oppose any actions by federal and provincial governments to expedite major projects that would undermine their rights and environmental protections. They passed two resolutions at the Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday confirming that stance and committing the AFN to opposing legislation or policies that dilute their rights or undermine...
The federal Conservatives outspent the Liberals almost two to one last year despite losing the general election to Mark Carney’s incumbent party, which won a fourth consecutive campaign. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s party also ended the year in debt, even as it raised a record $48.4-million from supporters in 2025. The Liberals, meanwhile, ended the year with no debt, after...
The Bank of Canada is holding its policy rate at 2.25 per cent and says that it expects the Canadian economy to improve, despite flatlined growth over the past 18 months. But there are big caveats. Although the economy is showing signs of improvement and inflation is easing, the BOC’s new monetary policy report released today warns that uncertainty driven...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation Thursday to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting laws ahead of the midterms.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation Thursday to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting laws ahead of the midterms.
NEW YORK (AP) -- President Donald Trump's media company is planning to charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets.
For many years, Elbridge Colby has been one of the loudest voices in Washington calling for America’s NATO allies to pay their “fair share” on defence, in order to allow the United States to pivot toward the growing challenge of China.
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is the unabashed defender of the president in a country where tariffs and 51st-state talk are wildly unpopular
The Carney government has sent a senior official from Canada’s embassy in Washington, to a Trump administration summit trying to rally allies behind a new U.S. campaign targeting left-wing groups it claims are a top terrorism threat. Canada is one of more than 60 countries attending the high-level counterterrorism meeting, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office confirmed Thursday, though it’s...
An internal government audit of Canadian diplomatic missions in the U.S. completed late last year found staff faced safety risks and problems with accessing health care -- more than a year after a union flagged those same issues. "U.S. cities present security risks related to street crime, protests, the widespread presence of firearms, and broader social crises such as substance...
A senior Trump administration official is publicly criticizing the idea of a collective “middle powers” strategy among American allies and partners, warning it is a “distraction” that could cost them “time, money and political capital.” In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Elbridge Colby, the U.S. Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, also pushed back on the idea that...
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is “reinstating” a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and will charge ships for safe passage, after another heavy exchange of fire threatened negotiations aimed at ending the war. He said on social media that Iranian ships will no longer be able to travel through the strait and...
Resource projects in Canada – including mines, pipelines, and energy infrastructure – often require engagement with affected First Nations before they can proceed. When consultation is mishandled or ignored, the consequences extend well beyond regulatory delays: projects can face costly litigation, years of uncertainty, lost investment, or even cancellation. Billions of dollars of economic activity and thousands of jobs can...
This October, Canada faces both an Alberta referendum that could catalyze an unprecedented independence vote in that province and a provincial election that could do the same in Québec for the third time in 50 years. As a result, the word “sovereignty” has again entered our national, daily political discourse. As it happens, sovereignty is one of the most frequently...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Peter Nicholson: Thanks, Chris. Since the events of July 2 we have quite a bit more information on the agreement between Canada and Alberta over the rules that are going to govern both the pipeline and oil sands production developments. I think there is a growing recognition that a pipeline shouldn’t be a “field of dreams” – that it is...
Prime Minister Carney has made clear from the outset of his time in office that without a commitment to implement the Pathways carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, there would be no new bitumen pipeline to the B.C. coast. The expectation was formalized in the Nov. 27 Alberta-Ottawa MOU and the May 15 Implementation Agreement. The oil sands industry has...
An Indigenous couple’s remains, repatriated to Canada six years ago, have yet to find a final resting place because their “spiritual belongings” are being held by museums in the United Kingdom. Six objects associated with Demasduit and Nonosabasut, among the last of the Beothuks of Newfoundland, are being retained by the National Museums Scotland and by the British Museum. Thanks...
A lot of attention has been given to the Strait of Hormuz amid Iran’s closure in response to attacks by the U.S. and Israel. But another key strait in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen, has also been threatened with a shutdown, and it’s similarly vital to trade. Thomas Juneau is a professor at the...
The yellow-orange haze cast upon much of Southern Ontario thanks to smoke drifting in from Northwestern wildfires. Toronto was ranked as having the worst air quality in the world for most of Wednesday according to IQAir. Although conditions are expected to ease as the city heads into the weekend, was there a way to prevent it from getting this bad...
As the planet heats up, wildfire seasons are getting worse. Wildfires have caused mass destruction to homes and community infrastructure in Collins First Nation. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their communities across Northern Ontario. Fires continue to rage across the country. Even those of us living in cities, safe from the flames, are feeling the effects. Toronto briefly...
We’ll admit it when we might have been wrong — and the results of Monday’s byelection in Prince Edward Island suggest we might have been a bit too skeptical of a Narrative Research poll that put the PEI Greens in the lead. So, we start with some mea culpas, and a discussion of whether the Cornwall—Meadowbank could be the proverbial...
